


Glass and Steel

by jayeinacross



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 19:32:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayeinacross/pseuds/jayeinacross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These are the things that Herc worries will get his son killed, even though Chuck is almost too stubborn to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glass and Steel

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt on the kinkmeme asking for Herc's thoughts the first time he sees Chuck wearing dog tags.

Chuck enters the Jaeger Academy when he's fifteen years old. He's practically grown up in Shatterdomes since he was nine, going wherever his father's deployed, and being a Ranger has always been what he's set his sights on. Herc doesn't try and talk him out of it. He knows the costs of piloting a Jaeger, the danger that Rangers are in every time they engage in combat, but as hard as it is for him to talk to Chuck sometimes, he knows there's nothing he could do to stop him anyway. Chuck's been raised by the PPDC as much as by Herc himself, and he wants to be the best.

Herc watches his son grow, but it feels like it's from afar, even though he's right there. There's a wall between them and it's made of glass, but he doesn't know how to break it, and he's not sure whether Chuck doesn't know either, or if he just doesn't want to.

He introduces Chuck to Max the day before Chuck enters the Academy, and when he sees his son's smile, he feels like it's the first thing he's done right in a long time. It's been a long time since he's seen an expression like that on Chuck's face, and he blames himself for that.

Chuck wants to be the best, and it looks like he's on his way to becoming just that. He surpasses the other pilots-in-training with ease and he's the top of the class – but the arrogance follows shortly after that, the disdain he has for anyone who doesn't live up to the standards of perfection that he holds himself to, the determination to outdo every other Ranger.

These are the things that Herc worries will get his son killed, even though Chuck is almost too stubborn to die.

He gets his dog tags when he graduates, with honours, from the Jaeger Academy. Herc is there watching as the chain is hung around his neck, his name and rank engraved on the tags twice – for identification, for the event that the wearer doesn't make it back to base alive. The steel is cold at first touch, but warms fast against skin, and stays that way. It's more of a tradition than a necessity now, because of the technology that tracks and monitors every pilot when they're in a Jaeger, but they both wear their tags proudly. They're a sign of a Ranger, a role that they both respect and honour, and it's one of the few things they share.

Herc doesn't necessarily approve of or share a lot of Chuck's traits, but he does know that it's the way that he is, even if he doesn't know how to say that. He hopes that Chuck will know all the things he can't say soon enough, because they're set to drift together for the first time the next day.

He looks at those tags around Chuck's neck, and he feels pride for what his son has achieved, because Herc knows how much it means to be a Ranger.

He looks at those tags, and he feels a kind of fear he doesn't feel anywhere else, because the Kaiju are appearing more often, getting bigger and stronger, and if Chuck dies in a Jaeger, the chances are that there won't be a body or a tag to find at all.


End file.
